Thursday, November 6, 2014

Decades ago,
when Gavaskar or Gundappa Viswanath made runs at Chepauk, the ardent fan would
run into the stadium, greet and get back …. Slowly restrictions came – and at
some point time, they had barbed wire fence (actually double layered fence) at
Chepauk – Police cops would stand facing the crowd tethering their movement. IPL was no different – milling crowds - hot
days, made hotter by the lights – no facilities, winding narror make shift barricades and rude volunteers, no
decent rest rooms, water starved toilets – nothing is allowed inside including
water bottles – things sold at exorbitant prices. Inside the stadiums
loudspeakers would blare songs of all languages and there would be cacophony. One can see Sivamani drum dishing out music
and Tamil (or Hindi or Telegu hits) could be heard by the 5th
delivery …. Then there were those scantily clad cheerleaders - (Pune Warriors’ cheerleaders were always in
traditional dress jumping to all non-traditional music !)

The Adelaide Oval remains
one of cricket's most picturesque Test venues despite recent developments to
increase the capacity and upgrade the facilities. The ground opened in 1873. In
1932-33, the Bodyline affair reached its nadir at The Oval when Bill Woodfull
and Bert Oldfield were struck, and on the third day mounted police patrolled to
keep the 50, 962 spectators in order. Now at the same Adelaide, Kyle Abbott
harried Australia's batsmen and Rilee Rossouw achieved the rare feat of putting
Quinton de Kock in the shade during a stand of 129 as South Africa secured a
vast opening win in the Twenty20 match at Adelaide Oval. Three days after they
were comfortably beaten by a Cricket Australia Invitational XI in Sydney, the
tourists combined impressively with ball and bat to deliver Australia's third
consecutive international defeat, albeit against two distinctly different teams
in two vastly different formats on opposite sides of the globe.

The score card would read
: South Africa 3 for 145 (Rossouw 78, de Kock 46) beat Australia 6 for 144
(Watson 47, Faulkner 41*, Abbott 3-21) by seven wickets………… more interestingly,
Cricket Australia has apologised to T20 captain Aaron Finch after he had a
close call with an artificial flame-thrower during the series-opening loss to
South Africa last night.

Finch was
shocked when a burst of coloured flames were deployed just as he went to pick
up ball from over the Adelaide Oval boundary line. "We have apologised to
Aaron for the incident last night," a Cricket Australia spokesman said. "We
have clear operating procedures in place for the use of pyrotechnics at matches. "They include strict rules about
safe operating distances with respect to players and fans. "Clearly there
was a breach of that last night which we take very seriously and have addressed
with the contractor concerned."

At the Adelaide Oval on
Wednesday, Finch was doing what most of the Australians were doing all night,
chasing leather to the boundary during the seven-wicket loss to a South African
team parading only about seven recognisable names. The ball trickled over the
modern equivalent of the picket fence and Finch knew the artificial
flamethrower was scheduled to do its thing. Every boundary in T20 is followed
by fireworks. Finch paused like a kid thinking twice about retrieving his taped
ball when it’s gone into the neighbour’s backyard. Finch stared at the flame-throwing
contraption. The contraption stared back at him. Finch assumed it was safe to
proceed and then ... not to be !! Four
giant flames licked the sky and very nearly, the skipper. He was about a metre away from losing
more than an eyebrow and was clearly rattled in having to be so much nearer the flame. An expletive letting Finch was unhurt. But he
was shaken.

It was a shock and could
have been quite dangerous. Finch claimed
his ex-teammate David Hussey had a brush with the burning issue at the same
ground. “I think it might have been last year, or the year before, when Dave
Hussey almost got his head blown off,” Finch said. “Probably a bit more care
has to be taken towards the player.”

T20 is
renowned for its entertainment, including music and flame-throwers – but more
than the entertainment, its safety of players and spectators that is
important. The T20 capain is questioning if the safety of players and
spectators is given enough consideration by Cricket Australia, when organising
the extra entertainment such as the flamethrowers. A flamethrower is a mechanical incendiary
device designed to project a long, controllable stream of fire. They were first
used during World War I, and widely used in World War II.